That's why they play the game

Before the Pakistanis came to India, a friend remarked to me that we'd be #2 in the ICC test rankings if we beat Pakistan 2-0. It was a casual, off-hand remark and I just wondered (in my mind) if it was going to be that easy. Turns out that it wasn't. In case you were six feet under, Pakistan beat India on the final day and won the Bangalore test match, squaring the test series.

That's why I love rivalry games. All the records get thrown out of the window. All the questions about talent, the hype, all that goes when the players play. And because it's a rivalry, it brings out the best in everyone. It happened when India went to Pakistan last year and it happened when the Pakis came here.

From an almost certain losing position in Mohali to an unlikely win in Bangalore (which by the way sucks as a venue for India!), the Pakistan team has come a long way.

I'm sure the Indian team's performance will be dissected by just about everyone so I'll spare you the innards.

I hate to say this but hats off to the Pakistanis. They wanted it more. They got it. The one-day series should be a dog-fight from the way the test series went.

Good for cricket, not so good for Saurav Ganguly.

Page 3

I saw Page 3, the latest Madhur Bhandarkar movie about a week ago. (If you haven't heard of it, Page 3 is Bhandarkar's take on the Page 3 culture that is prevalent in the "high society" in India.) I had heard good things about it, the review was good, so I expected a good movie.

I was disappointed. This probably had more to do with my expectations than with the movie, but I also feel that the movie had let me down.

The movie unfolds (mostly) through the eyes of Konkona Sen Sharma (who was as usual, brilliant), a recently graduated journalist who works the Page 3 beat. We meet her attending a party and then the movie follows her life as a journalist and her personal life, with sub-plots of the roommates, her editor, and so on.

The movie would've been great if it hadn't tried to tackle too many things. The script lost focus by trying to do too much. After watching the movie, I came away feeling lost about what the writer and director were trying to convey. There were a few good moments and some subtle touches that I liked, but overall, I was disappointed.

A Few Bad (Auto) Men

I got into a terrible shouting match with an auto driver today. I had to go to a house-warming ceremony somewhere near Marathahalli and I showed him the directions, told him the name of the place and asked him specifically if he was okay with coming there. He says Yeah. Then, about two kilometres from the place, he starts saying (in Hindi of course), "I thought you said that it was near the airport. This is NOT Marathahalli," and so on.

Good thing I'd looked at the auto meter and figured out when we went away from the main road. I told him I'd pay him whatever the difference was for him to get back to the main road. That quiets him for a while and then he starts grumbling about the road. By this time I'm pissed. I got into a shouting match with him and then I asked him to stop. I tell him that I have to pay him Rs. 10 extra. He says, You said Rs. 15. At this point, I'm simmering with anger and I walk away in a huff to get some change. I give him the change and he is still truculent. I walk away, noting down his number. Maybe I'll still file a complaint. Anyone know how to do this?

The thing is that most auto drivers that I've travelled with (and I have travelled a lot in autos) are quite good. There are a few idiots like the one I encountered and these idiots give the rest a bad name.

This is one of those things--you don't remember the good people, you remember the bad. Dissatisfiers I think they call them.

More trees gone

Yeah, I've talked about this already, but these tree things are so beautiful, it's a shame to lose them. It's the same road, just different trees. Garden city?

Knopfler in Bangalore

Seeing Mark Knopfler perform live was a dream come true for me. Yes, I know that the ticket price (at Rs. 2500) might seem expensive, but, in my opinion the concert was worth the price and then some more. To listen to him play Sultans of Swing, Walk of Life, Brothers In Arms, Romeo & Juliet, Telegraph Road, Sailing to Philadelphia, What It Is, Why Aye Man, Money for Nothing, and So Far Away, was fantastic. By my count, he played around 16 songs, about five from Shangri-La, his latest album.

Knopfler played for almost two hours and it was by far the best rock concert that I've attended. The tempos of the songs were carefully chosen, so he brought the crowd up into a frenzy and then dropped it down a notch. He rocked the crowd and even made us laugh with his tea-drinking and comments. The crowd had some amazing energy and we were was loud. There are were some die hard fans out there, even singing the lyrics to songs from Shangri-La.

Knopfler played a Fender, an Epiphone, and his trademark steel guitar, among other guitars, all through a Marshal amplifier. He changed guitars almost every song, which explains why he brought thirty six guitars to India! The thick sound and the wonderful tone was unmistakably Mark Knopfler, and the finger-picking was so effortless, you know that's come with years and years of practice. Knoplfer was ably accompanied by Glenn Worf, Chad Cromwell, Richard Bennett, Guy Fletcher (former Dire Straits keyboardist) and Matt Rollings.

The show was phenomenal, you can't put a price on such things. Live music rocks!

--Updated again 15 minutes later to correct grammar mistakes. See the strike-throughs. Sheesh!--

Cyber policing

It's finally happened. We've been reading about it in the newspapers, and reports on website but it's not been implemented till now. I'm talking about cyber-cafe policing and this article gives you more details. You have to now provide a proof of identity and other details when you access the Internet from a cyber cafe. Oh well, there goes your privacy.

"This is going to drive us out of business," said G. Satish, co-owner of Internet cafe Cyberia. "People ask why they must part with personal details just to send an e-mail?" he said. "Many have walked out of my shop after being asked to register themselves. This is not working."

I don't really know how it's going to affect people but I wonder about what happens to the information, how long is it archived, who gets to see it--we've just opened a Pandora's box. We're already battling tele-marketing (unsolicited of course) calls, wonder what this will do for privacy in India.

Pavan Duggal, a cyber law expert in India, raises the same concern in the article.

But cyber crime lawyer Pavan Duggal said personal details could be misused or sold to telemarketers. "National security and individual privacy must be kept in balance," he said. "Cyber cafes are only a medium. Don't punish the pipeline because you are getting dirty water."

Bade Bhaiyya is watching you.